Software Update fixes possible journaling issue in some Macs

Apple has released an update for some "mid-2007" MacBook and MacBook Pro …

Apple has released MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0 for some Apple's portables that shipped without journaling enabled. The update is recommended for those with "mid-2007 MacBooks," and "mid 2007" MacBook Pros of the 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz varieties. The update is a mere 200kb.

For those not in the know, "journaling" within OS X refers to the act of the operating system creating a record, or journal, of the changes made to the file system. Journaling can be particularly useful if you experience a crash or a power outage so that the operating system can choose the last healthy state to reboot into. Journaling is particularly useful in a server environment where it can cut down on downtime when it goes back to a known "good" version of the system and, according to Apple, reboots much more quickly. Journaling has its downfalls too--since the system is actually reverting to a known "good" state, the machine will lose any data that was being processed at the time of failure.

In a somewhat un-Apple-like way, the user-friendly company has a rather long list of steps to follow after installing the update, instructing the user to check their disk for corruption. The steps include starting up from the install CD and using Disk Utility to repair the newly journal-enabled disk. They can be read in full at the about page for the update.